If they were to go back to boarding from the back first, they’d have to have a FA in the aisles preventing them from putting their carry-on in the closer/front forward) overhead bins. That’s a big problem. They should have passengers put their stuff in the overhead closest to their seats.
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I’ve needed to use a wheelchair assist at the Long Beach (California) airport several times in the last 2 years. The planes are boarded from a very steep set of ramps, and while I do well on flat surfaces and slight inclines, since I had periformis syndrome, walking up steep inclines isn’t in my vernacular these days. So yes, I board the plane in a wheelchair but am perfectly capable of deplaning (I can even walk down steep declines). Folks can give me looks if they like, that’s on them.
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Alaska is nice (and easy to earn status), at least when there’s not a hole in the side of the plane…
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More importantly, it ticks off their frequent flyers who prefer to sit in the front, and certainly don’t want to board last after all the bins are full.
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Exactly. Which is why they’ll pay more to select seats or maintain loyalty to earn a higher status. Therefore, the increased revenue.
Here is a comparison of airline turnaround times, which explains why Southwest has some of the policies it has (no pre-assigned seating, does not charge for the first two checked bags):
Son just got through security at SAN and called and said- there are hula dancers! He timed it just right.
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I don’t like being totally negative, but I want to share our experiences in Charlotte two Fridays back and yesterday. Charlotte was a connection to and from St. Martin, where we spent a week.
(St. Martin/Maarten is awesome, btw. I call it the Food Island – outstanding cuisine)
Outbound:
Arrival – We sat on the plane for about half an hour before exiting.
We then had a long layover (until 5:22am the next day).
Departure – We showed up at about 3:45 for our 5:22 flight out of CLT. They had one ssecurity checkpoint open, with one line. It moved more slowly than Space Mountain at peak hours. It took us about 75 minutes to get through that, so we literally ran to our gate. We just made it. I’m sure that some missed that flight. They only had two people checking IDs in that line.
Inbound:
Arrival – This time, it took us about 45 minutes to exit the plane. Something is seriously wrong with their ramp/gate management.
So, once again, we were running to our connection flight back home. This time we made it with about 20 minutes to spare. A standard walk would have sufficed, in retrospect.
Departure – ETA in Moline was showing as 9:30, so I texted that info to our ride (we were being picked up at the home airport…). Well, we got on the plane on time… and then sat there for an hour before taking off. The pilots did the best they could, but we still arrived about half an hour late.
So – I’m not a terribly huge fan of CLT. Be aware of its issues and plan accordingly.
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Ugh, we’ve had similar bad experiences. I hate that I have to fly through there so often.
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What airline was it? We seem to have the most trouble with United, but air travel in general seems pretty bad these days.
American and subsidiaries.
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American.
If you have certain credit cards (ie Chase Sapphire Reserve) and the plane is delayed for several hours, they may give you credit for expenses.
- Trip Delay Reimbursement: If your common carrier travel is delayed more than 12 hours (six hours for Sapphire Reserve) or requires an overnight stay, you and your family are covered for unreimbursed expenses, such as meals and lodging, up to $500 per ticket.
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My younger S hates Charlotte. Always seems to have bad experiences there. For the most part, ours hasn’t been terrible with the exception of when we flew from there to Barcelona. But that was in 2019 and the terminal was under construction. But they also had that one super long security line that didn’t even snake. It just was one LONG straight line that went across the entire terminal.
And then American cancelled our flight and we couldn’t leave until the next day, and then they put our luggage on the flight to Madrid vs barecelona and we didn’t get our luggage for 4 days.
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I know it may be obvious, but I’m assuming you have to have used that card when you purchased tickets to get the payment for delay.
If you’ve used your airlines credit card, it won’t help.
But didn’t they just come up with some federal rules related to delays also?
Yes.
We use the Chase Sapphire Reserve for travel insurance (one of the best CC cards for this) and to transfer Ultimate Rewards to Hyatt.
Hyatt points are very difficult to earn (unlike Marriott/Hilton) but their points are typically the lowest redemption because they dont use dynamic pricing.
Transferring 1:1 allows you get Hyatt points without having to stay at Hyatts to earn them.
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My Mom (parents) did all the planning and financing for that trip, and older S was definitely helping her to get all of the reimbursement they could. He’s big into that kind of thing and knew all about the European laws from his time in Scotland.
We also had another flight cancelled while we were there! And a private tour guide ghosted us. And a bunch of other irritating things. I felt badly for my mom. But we still had fun in general
Funny you mention this.
I got a Chase card when they were giving 100K signup points, with the plan of using the points at the Hyatt in Kauai.
BUT, my husband would rather stay at the little ocean-front condo we have stay at multiple times in Kauai so my son will likely be the beneficiary of the points to stay there.
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There’s a Hyatt hotel in Paris that’s about $1500/night but only requires 45k Hyatt points.
45k Marriott points is only worth about $200 in value. Marriott redemption is one of the worst. I only maintain my Platinum status for the 4pm checkout and access to the lounge. If they don’t offer the double night credit (usually 1st quarter), I wouldn’t even stay there at all.
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Wow, I thought the Kauai one was a good deal.
Off I go to look up Hyatt in Paris… (but my son may not be happy).
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